I Can't Hate My Shadows
by Kumquats4Eve
Summary: Falling into a different world, Kayla quickly becomes captivated with her new life. With her loyal partner, they train alone and find Kishin eggs. Everything's going smoothly until they confront the witch. OCs mostly.
1. New Reflections Part One

**A/N:: I've only watched the English Anime, so I'll be using all of the English terms. Of course, I don't own Soul Eater blah, blah, blah. Written with two of my OCs as main characters, although that will change at a certain point. Expect to see SE characters later on in the story, but I wanted to develop my OCs without them in the beginning.**

_Summary:: Falling into a different world is hard enough, but as she becomes completely captivated with her new surroundings, she finds an awesome partner to help her out. Things seem to be going swimmingly as the collect Kishin eggs, but all of that changes when they face their Witch. Takes place before the rise of Asura as the Kishin. And yes, my OC comes from our world, I don't know if that ever fully gets explained..._

I Can't Hate My Shadows

Chapter One

_New Reflections_

My chains scraped across each other and the sharp clanging sound echoed off the stonewalls that surrounded me as I changed the position of my arms. Although I had not threatened the academy in any way, I had gotten myself imprisoned out of choice. Due to the Kishin's rising power, I was becoming more and more of a hazard. Bestial instincts were firmly rooted in insanity and made me easily susceptible to the presence of the Kishin's madness.

Laying my head down on my arms, I was forced to gaze upon the only decoration in the room. A mirror. I gave a small huff of disgust and closed my eyes. I hated mirrors. Of course the mirror was only there in case Lord Death felt the need to check in on me. Which, so far, he had not done. Not that I really expected him to. He was probably trying to discover a way to fight Asura. So I didn't really hold anything against him. I only hated mirrors because they're the reason my life had begun to get this crazy and depressing. Although, arguably, had my previous life really been any better than it was now?

Oh well, no dwelling in on the past. I'd sworn myself to that when all of this began. The hand that I had been given were the ones I held and I would deal with that as my life changed. Moaning and groaning over things done and lost was a lame thing to do.

Remembering my past, however, was a different matter. No matter what happened, my memories were still there and they were part of who I am. Besides, what else did I have to think about in this cell of mine? The story is a bit of a long one. I'm sure you don't mind though.

Anyway, as I've said, it all started with a mirror. Or several, I suppose.

* * *

An infinite amount of my own reflections surrounded me. The solid black ceiling and floor made me feel like I was standing in empty space or at least some horrible realm of my own imagination. They weren't even good quality mirrors. Vast amounts of imperfections marred my other selves. Scratches, blurs, and slight to major warping mutated my features into unrecognizable mush.

"This house of mirrors really sucks," I muttered under my breath.

Despite my negative comment, however, I was sure I liked it to a certain point. A mirror house is made to disorient and it definitely had done that part of its job rather well. I gave a small frown and looked at the edges of the mirrors, looking for my exit route out of this stupid room. Usually I could find one that didn't look quite right, but for some reason, none of the ones I looked at seemed to have anything wrong.

I turned around to try and go back the way I came from, but I held out my hand and realized that there was a mirror there and my own tormented reflection looked back at me. Surprised, I backed away from the mirror and snapped my head around rapidly trying to make sense of my directions. What was going on? I could feel drips of adrenaline begin to let loose into my system.

Keeping my eyes open, I took in deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out. There's no need to freak out, just walk around the perimeter and tap each of the mirrors. Simple. With a plan, I felt more sure of myself and began to make my way around.

However, a certain mirror stopped me in my tracks. There was something different about this one, but… what was it? Peering at my reflection, it quickly became apparent. This one held no blemishes. No scratches, no blurs and no warping. It's weird that the perfect mirror would seem to be the odd one out.

After staring at all of the deformed versions of me, it felt nice to see what I really looked like. In fact, it felt almost reassuring. I felt reassured that I was indeed, not a freak. My wavy dark brown, almost black hair reached a few inches past my shoulders. With my grey jacket on, it hid my fit body because it was a size too big, but I liked it that way because my arms were pretty long and I liked to tuck my hands into my sleeves. My brown-green eyes (Not hazel, thank you. The green and brown parts seemed to have somehow separated themselves, green around the outside and brown crowding my pupils) looked back at me in amusement as if my reflection were laughing at my insecurities. Once again, I couldn't help but think of myself as being monochromatic because my skin was well tanned, going perhaps a shade darker than olive.

For seemingly no reason at all, I reached out towards it, but then stopped an inch away from its surface. For exactly the same reason I reached toward it, I held myself back from it. Why was I holding myself back? It was just a mirror, wasn't it?

As if to prove it to myself, I quickly reached out to tap its surface. Seemingly at the same exact moment, ripples crossed its surface. I didn't have time to pull myself away and my finger passed through the mirror. 'Oooh, poodle toss.' Not feeling anything to push against I began to feel unbalanced. I flailed to try and regain equilibrium, but managed to do the opposite and fell head first into the apparently 'not-really-there' mirror.

Arms up to protect my head and not land on my face, I gave a whumpf as I hit the ground. Dazed, I rolled over and took in my surroundings. Which were exactly the same as before. Add in even more confusion to my off-kilter brain. "Uuuh," I simply droned as there was pretty much nothing going through my brain at the moment.

Seriously, what was going on? Had passing through that mirror really happened? Or was that just some crazy trick from this crazy house of mirrors. I sat up and glanced at each of my reflections as if the hideous imitations could give me an answer. A bit freaked out and still dazed, I got up and steadily made my way out of that supposed 'fun house'. The exit had turned out to be quite obvious, and I wondered how I hadn't seen it earlier.

Either way, I was out now and I gave a stretch to rid myself of that whole disturbing experience in that house of mirrors. I blinked slowly and deliberately when I realized that it was dark out. Of course, 'dark' didn't really mean much because I was in Las Vegas and all of the buildings were lit up and people were roaming the streets.

Rubbing my eyes and glaring at my surroundings, I wondered just how long I'd been stuck inside with the mirrors. Why hadn't my parents called me? I was only 13 for godsake's! Who in their right mind would even think to let their kid walk around at night in Las Vegas? Of course, those were my parents for you. They took care of me well enough in the material way, but as for my emotional and social ways, I was on my own. But still, this was very bad parenting.

Reaching into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone and was preparing to call them up and ask them where they were, but bugged out when I saw that I had zero bars. No service? In Las Vegas? Maybe… maybe the cell phone company was having maintenance. Yeah, that could be it.

Obviously not convinced of that terrible explanation, I still allowed it to swaddle me and at least pretend that things were normal. I knew where my parents had booked a hotel, anyway. Getting back there would be no problem. Pulling my grey jacket tighter around myself, I speedily made my way back to our motel.

Trying to keep from making contact with any possibly shady characters around me, I kept my head down and lifted my feet off the ground in an effort not to scuff, as I hated extraneous noise. I gave a small smile when I realized that I was looking pretty sketchy myself. Letting my mind wander, I soon had myself outside our hotel. Peering up at it, I couldn't help but think that something was off. Two of the letters were out on the sign, making it look like the message read "H EL". The whole building simply looked drearier and darker. There weren't any lights on in any of the windows, either. Which was mildly depressing because our room was one of the ones at the front. Were my parents already asleep or were they simply not home yet?

Shaking off my growing fear, I walked inside and noticed that the whole interior was just as bad. Could this seriously be the right hotel? I looked at the front desk, which looked like it had been permanently vacated, but the hotel name matched up and they were the same decorations. Except, upon closer inspection, a painting on a wall depicting a few poker players seemed to have more red and black tones than I remembered. And was it just me, or did one of the poker players had features that displayed anguish as he handed over a circular, bright blue object (a weird type of poker chip, maybe?) to another man who overshadowed him and beheld a terrifying look of triumph as he reached out to receive the blue object.

I gave a small shiver and headed up the stairs since our room was only on the second floor. My steps echoed up the concrete stairwell and I felt as if the darkness from the hallway was following me from the lobby. I snapped my head around to try and catch the cause of my unease, but only managed to see my weakly displayed shadow. Convincing myself that everything was fine, I made it up the stairs and opened the door to the second floor.

Stepping out, I carefully closed the door behind me, not wanting it to make that annoying click in this silent hallway. Making it to my door, I pulled out my card for the door, and mindlessly swiped it. The door merely blinked a red light at me. What? How could it not work? I tried again, and again. There was no change. Fed up with waiting, I raised my hand, about to bang against the door, but then a draft blew past my head and the door slowly swung silently open. Oh. Haha, silly me. I probably should've tried that first.

I let out a small breath of relief and allowed a small smile to creep upon my lips. Thank god. I was home. Or at least a temporary place of residence. Either way, I could now go to bed and hide underneath the covers while pretending all of this night had never happened. My relief was short lived.

It was like a strange dream. The door smoothly displayed the scene that it had previously hidden. Slowly two shadowy figures came into sight. One heavily deformed figure towered over a slim, feminine one. As the deformed one raised a knife, his intent clear, I couldn't help but remember the painting from the lobby. Eyes steadily widening, my focus shifted to the giant moon outside the window. The thing was laughing and grinning with giant square teeth. That moon couldn't possibly be hanging out in space, could it? That question was shot out of my head, however, as the deformed shadow stabbed the lady right through the face. I could even see the point sticking out the back of her head.

This was way too surreal for me to handle. With that creepy moon laughing and gnashing its teeth, blood shot towards the deformed figure before the shadow of the lady appeared to rip apart before dissipating and only leaving behind the splattering of blood and a strange, glowing blue orb. Grabbing the orb, the figure proceeded to devour the object whole. That was about the time that I finally woke out of my reverie.

I would've given a scream or yelled or any other type of shout, but I've never been a particularly loud person and I wasn't just about to start now. Even if my life seemed to depend on it, as it did now. All my vocal chords could emit was a strangled croak, my own scream swallowed by my throat. However, it appeared to be enough for the demented figure to turn its glinting red eyes at me. 'Well, I'm fucked.'

Despite my inaction of my voice, my body was not one to betray me and I managed to rip myself from the creature's gaze and make a hasty retreat. Of course, by hasty retreat I meant running for my stupid, unfortunate life. No longer captivated by the surreal scene, I gave a very lousy yell of, "AAAAAH- HElp?"

If I wasn't running for my life, I would've banged my head against a wall. Seriously, I had managed to turn my cry of help into a question. In these sorts of situations, I think it would be better to demand help. Not that it's particularly my fault, I'm simply not used to asking for help, and it's not because I'm too prideful, it's just that nobody is usually there to help me. I've had to get by on my own. Unfortunately, I really wished someone was there with me then.

I managed to reach the stairwell door with a speed I didn't know I had, but as I touched the handle I heard the most unworldly voice snake its way down the hallway. "Don't think you can escape my reach, girly," the creature somehow managed to screech and speak breathily at the same time. "Your fate has already been decided!"

Unable to come up with any response to that, not that I think I had any possible way of speaking in this situation, I could feel my hair prickle and my stomach dropped. All the more reason to sprint down the stairs and fetch it, right? Haha, lame joke. What can I say, though? Tough situations make me seek humor, it's comforting. Besides, making it out of that building alive was going to take quite an effort.

Wrenching the door open, I didn't bother even using the steps and just jumped down each set which made my feet ache. Pain was second priority, anyway. Exiting the stairwell, I ran through the lobby, but couldn't resist a last glance at that awful painting. This time, I understood what that eerie blue orb truly was. What a horrid painting.

Finally outside of the building, I slowed myself down and stopped. Not having run that far, I wasn't particularly winded, but I hadn't actually heard that creature clambering after me, so I decided to at least slightly catch up on my breathing. Obviously, that was a bad idea. Couldn't I possibly have remembered all those lessons I learned from the scary movies I watched? Run, don't stop, and NEVER look back. As it was, I just stood there and stared up at the sky trying to see if it looked even remotely familiar. At least I had been looking up, though, because I managed to notice a sudden flash before my fear returned.

A resounding crash of shattered class broke the unusual damp silence of Las Vegas. The damned creature had merely waited for me to exit the building so that it could simply jump out a window after me. Screaming some profanity (I was too freaked out of my mind to remember what choice words I had uttered) I didn't wait for the creature to come into sight before returning to running for my life.

Not really thinking properly, I tried to escape my pursuer by running into the back alley behind the hotel. Word of advice, don't ever do that either. Why? Because the hotel designer obviously thought it was a good idea to cut off and make a perfect place for someone to be trapped while they got mugged. Or, in my case, murdered. My hope of escaping quickly withered, disappeared from my body and sank into the ground. I slapped my two hands on the concrete wall, testing if there were any possible ways to climb it. It appeared there was no escape. Zip. None. Nada.

Strength gone, I sank to my knees and pressed my forehead to the wall in despair. Could this really be it? I was only 13 years old! Of course, there were plenty of other people younger than I who had died before me, I reasoned. Still, that type of thing doesn't ever seem plausible until it was staring you in the face.

"HurHurHur..." an all too familiar noise of the creature's voice reached me. It appeared to be laughing at me. "You finally see your fate now, do you? Come now, don't be shy. Turn around and look me in the face. I want to watch you die."

Its screechy breathiness slithered its way into my brain and I couldn't help myself. I had to see this creature for myself, and as expected, it was one of the most disturbing scenes I ever laid eyes on. It still had the essence of being human in shape and features, but he (I'm guessing) seemed covered in boils, was so incredibly pale that you could see dark purple veins crisscrossing underneath his skin, and long, limp black hair that was really straight and seemed to stick to his body. At least he was wearing some clothing, a greasy and torn 'used-to-be' white wifebeater with similarly ruined dark pants. He wasn't wearing any socks or shoes, though, and I could see his grotesquely long toenails that were yellowish and cracked. Blood and (ugh) pus, used from all over his body as his limbs were all held at weird angles as if were some sort of puppet on strings. Head hung to the side, I could see his eyes through his hair and they were completely black and seemed to be all watery as a dark, oozing liquid was excreted from them.

Anyway, I could go into more detail, but I'm pretty sure that you get the idea and are already wanting me to stop. Besides, I was more focused on the gigantic knife he was holding. It was covered in rust, or more likely dried blood, with an impossibly black handle. I grimaced, I didn't want to imagine that knife ripping into me, but the images came anyway. Tears began to form in my eyes as the creature took its time walking over to me.

_'What are you DOING?' _A voice inside of me was yelling at me. _'Get up! Fight! The day's not over yet.' _I felt my muscles tense, but I didn't leave the ground. Was fighting all that better? I'd probably just die anyway, why don't I just sit here and learn to accept my death before it happens? _'So? You can die peacefully knowing that you actually tried! C'mon! MOVE!' _So, on orders from my voice of survival, I shakily stood up and leaned against the wall, much to the surprise of the creature. I looked around hoping for something that I could use against his knife, but nothing looked useful. Unless, of course, you suggested I slap him with a rotten piece of pizza that was just lying there. So I just stood there, trying to muster up all of my fighting spirit with absolutely no plan whatsoever.

Luckily, however, an intervention came to me from the sky. Or, more specifically, another shattered window. The sound broke through the night even louder because of the concrete walls around us. I was awake enough to cover my face with an arm as glass came raining down, but I could feel bits patter against my arms and hair like rain. When the glass rain had ended, I lowered my arm and saw that some guy my age (maybe 1 or 2 years older than myself) had somehow landed on his feet in front of me and was staring down the creature. As far as I could tell, the guy had light brown hair, was wearing a simple, white t-shirt and faded jeans. _'Did this guy really just jump out of that window?'_ I thought incredulously. Not that it mattered, I just hoped that he knew what he was doing so that he didn't die with me.

"Get out of the way!" screeched the deformity.

"You'll have to fight me first!" Brown-Haired Guy shouted back (even though announcing such a fact seemed obvious), and then his hands began to glow.

_'EH?' _I thought in shock as his hands turned into medium-sized knives. My eyes widened and my jaw went a bit slack in amazement. _'Maybe I won't die!'_

**A/N:: Well, I hope that wasn't a total failure ." And yes, flashback things are horridly lame, but I felt like it. Anyway, if someone is actually reading this, review? It's my first time writing something on here, so it'd be nice to know what ya'll think :) For now, I'll keep it T, but let me know if I should raise it due to violence, because sometimes I get WAY too into it...  
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	2. New Reflections Part Two

**A/N:: I don't own Soul Eater. Now that that's out of the way, many thanks to Draco Oblivion for a review as well as favoriting, it means a lot :D This chapter is shorter, but only because I really wanted the chapter to end on a certain note. Enjoy!**

**...  
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Chapter Two

_New Reflections  
Part Two_

Obviously irritated that something had come in between his meal (which, in case you didn't know, was me), the 'overly-excessive-leaking-of-body-fluids' creature bared its deranged teeth and stepped off toward my protector. Or at least who I hoped was my protector. As of right now, I would think of him as my savior, but who knows? Maybe he just wanted to eat me too. In fact, maybe this place was all about eating each other?

Luckily, I was able to sweep that thought out of my head by realizing how ill-constructed a society would be if that were the case. Hopefully, he was just a well meaning guy who happened to have knives for hands… Right. We'd see how that played out after this showdown finished up. Which, by the way, I had every intention of watching, because I had never truly witnessed one before. Obviously, I wasn't counting things I'd seen on television, because none of those could really compare to the sounds and vibes that you got from a fight that happened right in front of you. So, despite my shaking body as adrenaline dissipitated from my system, I forced myself to stand and watch the battle with open eyes. You never know what you might learn, after all.

The creature was already making the first move, and he was proving to be quite reckless. His only weapon was only a large kitchen knife, after all, but then again, maybe he knew something my protector didn't. Leaping with surprising strength and speed, the creature's form seemed to mimic those of some rabid monkey, with his right arm and leg behind him, while his left arm and leg were up in front, ready to strike down on the guy before me.

Luckily, my protector wasn't so stupid as to wait for the creature to come down slashing. Effortlessly stepping forward, so that he was now behind the deformed figure's expected landing place, he waited for it to be two feet above the ground before making a stab at his back. In theory, the plan was a good one, but when my protector made his move, the creature somehow knew where the guy's knife hand was planning to strike and grabbed it. In the next second, the creature's feet had touched the ground and did a small twist and brought his arm around so that now, he was the one facing the boy's back and my protector now had to lean back so as not to land heavily on the ground. I gave a small gasp and brought my hands together and prayed that this wasn't the end.

_'QUICK! Do something!' _Glancing around once more, I lurched towards the little something that I had spotted earlier and at the same time, the creature made a stab at the guy's throat who managed to block it with his other knife hand. Now, they were locked in a feat of strength, but even I knew that the guy was the one in trouble. He was already off balance and leaning backwards while the deformed human could easily stand above him. Pushing down, I could see that the creature intended for the boy to cut his own throat with his own knife hand. Not wanting that to happen, I grabbed the slice of pizza I had spotted earlier and threw it at the creature's face.

With a soft _thip!_ as the pizza slapped his face, I knew I had succeeded in distracting him momentarily (it's not everyday that you get slapped with a pizza, after all), but knew that I would need to do some more to help the guy at all. Which is why I quickly ran up and struck at the back of his knee so that his leg gave out. Now that he was below eye level, I brought out my small cell phone and jammed it into one of his too large, permanently open and way too watery black eyes. I knew I had done well when the deformed man released his hold on both the boy and the knife so that he could grasp at his ruined eye which oozed out bits of mashed eye and blood around my technological obstruction. Without losing a beat, the guy who I had helped out leaped to his feet, struck the creature in the stomach and then sliced up until he met the creature's jaw. It was a fatal wound.

Expecting the creature's innards to come spilling out at any moment, I was pleasantly surprised when he merely exploded into darkness before completely disipitating. Leaving only his knife, my phone, and a peculiar orb in his place. I had been half expecting the orb when the creature had been eliminated, because that had been what happened when the lady had disappeared, but I hadn't been expecting the orb to be slightly scaly and a blood red color. Before I could inspect it any closer, however, the guy who had helped me out grabbed the floating red orb and promptly dropped it into his mouth, chewed and then swallowed.

I gaped at him. Maybe I was right and this place actually did exist simply by eating each other's souls, in which case, this guy thought I was an easy target and was preparing to gut and eat my own 'orb-thing'! But... On second thought, his body language was no longer aggressive or tense anymore as it had been. In fact, I could practically feel waves of fatigue wafting off of him. My alarm settled down into mild suspicion, so when he turned to me I only leaned away from him a little, rather than turning tail and running. Looking directly at me with bright blue eyes tinged with gray, he gave me a quizzical look before uttering his first words directed at me, "Did you seriously throw a slice of pizza at him?"

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. At first I thought I was just laughing at the fact that out of everything he could've said, he was questioning my distraction technique. After a few seconds, I realized that I was laughing out of relief. I could feel the relief simply drip through my body, starting in my stomach and spreading to the extremities of my limbs. Adrenaline completely gone now, my laughter revealed how shaken up I was. Literally. Unable to support myself, I fell to my knees and sat back, hunching over and putting my face in my hands in an effort to hide my face. Shakes of laughter soon twisted into dry sobs.

Crying wasn't possible, I didn't have the strength for that, but I sat there and shook. I had been prepared to die. I had prepared myself for the possibility that seeing the creature's face might be my last view of this world. How could that not be traumatizing?

I didn't hear him come near, but when he stood and then kneeled down next to me, I could feel something akin to warmth coming off of him. He then put a warm arm across my back and firmly grabbed my shoulder, his other hand reaching out and pushing my hands away from my face. I remained staring at the ground blearily, even though I could tell that he wanted me to look at him. "Look at me," he whispered, obviously a bit unsure how to go about this.

When I merely moved my eyes to the direction opposite of him he decided on a bit more of an aggressive approach. Putting his fingers to my chin, he pulled my face to face his own. "Look. At. Me." Each word was their own command and was filled with such an order that I could not disobey. My eyes flicked up to his, which were eerily luminescent as they reflected the laughing moon's light, and he said the words that I needed to hear. "You're still alive."

Without a second thought, I pushed myself into his arms, knocking him onto his butt in the process. "Thank you," I mumbled into his chest as I held onto him in one of the more awkward stances, his legs spread around me as I was almost laying on top of him. In response to my mumblings, which he may or may not have heard, my protector wrapped his arms around me and gave a small grunt in obvious annoyance. Yet, somehow I felt that he was secretly pleased that I was better.

Pushing me off of himself, my protector held me out at arm's length for a moment in silence before simply stating, "Let's get some rest."

...

**A/N:: That was the first time I've ever written a fight sequence like that, so any advice on writing fight scenes would be much appreciated. Similarly, I am sorry for its (the fight scene's) shortness and lameness, but it was Kayla's first time in anything close to a fight, so I decided to go easy on them.  
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	3. Things Explained

**A/N:: Wow, this took awhile. But I had exam week and then some visitation of relatives, so I was distracted. I also got annoyed at my plotline and decided to change some things. Hopefully my distraction didn't cause weirdness in this chapter.**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**

Chapter Three

_Things Explained_

I can't remember the exact details over how we managed to get ourselves back up and into the hotel, even if we did use the elevator to go up a floor this time. All I remember is using each other as a support, our arms laid across each other's shoulders. This was a bit more uncomfortable for me, however, because the guy was a bit taller than me by a few inches. There was also the weird, tense silence between us, but after the short few minutes behind the hotel, it felt somehow normal to be hanging with this guy. I'm not sure why, but I just got the feeling that he was alright.

The quiet 'ting' of the elevator bell announcing our arrival seemed surprisingly loud in the nighttime silence. Now I simply let my protector (I still have yet to learn his name) guide us to a certain door, as it became obvious that he had actually gotten a room in this particular hotel. Stepping to a halt outside a door marked '201,' the guy slipped his arm off of my shoulders. Doing likewise, I brought my arm to my stomach and cradled it as I felt slightly cold for some reason.

Pulling out his card, he quickly swiped it and the door rewarded him with a flashing green light. Opening the door, the brown haired boy silently stepped into the room while I hesitated and held back. Part of me was hesitating because it didn't seem like a good idea to follow a guy into his hotel room in Las Vegas, the other part wanted to know if I was allowed to follow him in. After all, he had dropped his arm, so maybe he expected me to go to my own hotel room.

As he reached the middle of the room, he seemed to realize I wasn't right behind him and turned to give me a look that said something along the lines of, "Are you going to stand there all day?" with a slight insult intended. Sharply jerking his head, I took that as an invitation to come inside.

So before I could change my mind, I followed him in and closed the door quietly behind me. Turning around, I caught the guy at the end of a stretch before he unceremoniously flopped onto one of the two single sized beds in the room. I couldn't help but give a small smile as he lazily grabbed the edge of the top blanket and rolled over so that he was wrapped like a crepe. Kicking off my shoes, I got into bed the normal way, pulling back the sheets before placing myself in the bed. Reaching behind my head, I grabbed the pillow and tossed it off the bed. Pillows seemed to give me cricks in my neck. Pulling the covers up to my neck, I heard the bed next to me squeak a little, letting me know that my protector had changed position.

Getting the feeling that he was looking at me, I turned my head to face him and saw that he was looking at me. Surprised, I blinked and stared back at him quizzically. Grinning, he simply said, "My name's Daniel."

I returned the grin, realizing that I had forgotten to bother asking his name. "Kayla," I replied.

In response to that, Daniel rolled back over and muttered something unintelligibly. Unable to help myself, I muttered in a similar fashion and added "to you too."

As I drifted into sleep, I got an inkling that he was laughing on the inside.

-(morning comes)-

The good thing about being overly tired is that it gives me a dreamless sleep, and I had absolutely no inclination to have my mind to delve on what had gone on last night. When I woke up, a few morning rays were peering through the windows. Normally, I would simply turn over, try to hide from the sun, and go back to sleep. I would have to agree, however, that these weren't normal circumstances. So saying, I got up and gave a small stretch.

As would be expected, there was momentary confusion when my brain recognized that this wasn't the same room I had fallen asleep in for the last few days. But after a few blinks, my memory came back to me. Worried, I looked over at Daniel's bed for reassurance, but saw that he wasn't there. My stomach dropped and a million negative thoughts passed through my head. Maybe he thought I was completely fine on my own or that my parents were around somewhere? Speaking of which, shouldn't Daniel have his own parents around? He couldn't be that much older than me, after all.

My brain was just on its way to wondering where Daniel's parents could possibly be, when he walked back into the room. Oh, haha, he'd merely been in the bathroom. I suppose I should've thought of that possibly first. No matter, it had no impact on the fact that I felt completely relieved. I didn't want to be left alone ever again.

Daniel's hair was wet and he was wiping it down with a towel, which implied he had taken a shower, but he was still wearing the clothes I had seen him in yesterday. Speaking of which, I'd had to sleep in my own clothes as well. Tossing my covers off, I sat cross legged on the bed and looked at Daniel questioningly. He merely raised an eyebrow in response, as if to say, "what is it?"

"Uh, do you have any other clothes?"

"Nope."

Unsure how to respond to that, I merely mouthed "oh." Then asked, "Why?"

"Because I travel light. I just left my home to be my own person, which is why I'm headed to Death City to find myself a meister," Daniel attempted to explain. However, he only made me more confused.

"Where's Death city? And what does a meister do?" I asked feeling even more like an idiot when he gave me a 'did she really just ask that' look.

"Have you seriously never heard of Death City?" he asked, incredulous. "Or meisters? I don't care where you live, these things are basics of society around the globe!"

"Really?"

"YES, really!"

Well, if what he said was true, then this was merely more confirmation that I had somehow gone... somewhere else. My mind was wandering and I was thinking so hard that Daniel felt the need to wave his hand and ask if I was alright.

"Uuuh, well... Y'see..." were the only words I could think of on the spot.

While Daniel continued to give me a suspicious look, I scrambled to find a way to explain my theory to him. After plenty of reading, it was obvious that these types of things were never taken very well. Seeing Daniel's face merely reinforced this presumption.

"Do you find my sanity questionable?" I proposed.

At my question I could see that he was going to give me a snarky reply, but he must've seen that I was completely serious because he seemed to switch tactics and replied, "I've seen no reason to, so far... Why?"

Oh the dreaded 'why!' "Because I have the sneaking suspicion that I come from a different... Dimension."

There! I'd said it! Unable to help myself, I winced a little and moved away from Daniel, fearful of his reaction. Despite having only met him recently, I still cared what he thought about me.

My eyebrows came together in a worried expression when he pulled the towel that he had around his neck up and over his face. I kind of felt like a puppy that had just peed on the carpet, I knew that I had done something wrong, but just couldn't do anything about it. My body tensed even more when Daniel walked over and sat heavily on the bed next to me. Not completely next to me, mind you, but about three feet away.

He put his elbows on his knees before looking over at me, his gray-blue eyes not even giving me an inkling as to what he was thinking. I gave him a weak smile.

"Well, that does sound quite crazy." My stomach dropped (it had been doing a lot of that lately). "Buuut I guess I'll hear you out."

I would've attacked him with a hug, I was so friggin' happy, but that probably fell under the 'unhealthy behavior' category, so I restrained myself. Instead, I explained to Daniel what had gone on last night, before we ran into each other, but I won't retell it to you, 'cuz you already know what went down.

"And so that's when you showed up," I said, finishing up my story. "Hopefully that doesn't sound as crazy as I think it did."

"Actually," Daniel replied, tossing the towel from his head onto mine. "There might be some slight plausibility to it."

"Huh? Really?" I asked hopeful, peeking out from underneath the moist towel.

"Yeah, it just so happens that Lord Death talks to people through mirrors and travel through them," he said, standing up.

I pushed off the towel and looked at him stupidly, "Uuuh, 'Lord Death'?"

Daniel sighed, "He's sort of a world protector and entity. Oh, and he isn't human."

I nodded like I understood. Unfortunately, Daniel saw through my fake understanding. "Don't worry about it, you'll figure how things work around here soon enough."

"In any case, it's a good reason to take you with me to Death City," he continued. "Maybe Lord Death can help you and I can find myself a meister. Two birds with one stone."

"Oh, why do you need this… meister?" I asked, which got me another heave of a sigh.

"I'll explain during breakfast," he replied, grabbing the key card for the room. "Which I'll get while you take your shower."

I felt my insides flinch at the prospect at being left alone. "You're going to leave me?" I asked.

He gave me a look that was somewhere between confused and annoyed, "I'm coming back, idiot." And with that, he walked out.

That wasn't exactly what I meant… Oh well, nothing left to do, but actually take that shower. I was beginning to notice that some bits of that creature had managed to latch itself onto me. Gross.

After I got into the shower, I was able to take in my situation a bit better. At least I already had someone to hang with and explain this new environment to me. Although my usual instinct would be to not trust anyone I had just met, he had saved my life and I felt like a freshly born chick and had imprinted on the first thing that was nice to me. Wow, that makes me sound like some needy, helpless person. Then again, I sort of was. Of course, I had a reason, there was no way I'd be able to get through this transition alone, after all.

Then again, what would this "Lord Death" be able to do for me? Send me back to my own dimension? Did I really want that? Despite having almost died the minute I stepped into this dimension, at least it was tons more interesting than before. Not like my parents needed me, anyway. Sure, they would probably act the part of distressed parents of a missing child, but they didn't really need me and they'd probably blame my disappearance on me, anyway. Like it was my fault they let their thirteen year old child roam the streets of Las Vegas by herself.

The only reason I could actually find for wanting to go home was... safety. In my previous dimension, I was well taken care of and lack of clothing (as I found myself now) would never have been an issue. Or almost getting murdered, for that matter. It didn't seem like a good enough reason, though. With a choice between safety and adventure, I'd vouch for adventure every time.

Stepping out of the shower, I quickly wiped myself dry and put my clothes back on, which was slightly strange. As weird as it may seem, putting back on clothes that you were wearing before a shower is kind of disorienting. I guess I'm just too used to seeing myself in different clothes. Nah, that just sounds stupid. Maybe it's just the feeling of already worn clothes. Yeah, that sounds a bit more appropriate.

Anyway, maybe I should tell Daniel that I'm actually all good with the possibility of staying in this dimension. Of course, that would be presuming that I could stay with him and what if he actually didn't really want me around? That would make things a touch awkward, wouldn't it? I guess I'd keep this decision to myself until it actually became a problem.

As I attempted to dry my hair some more, I noticed that there were a few things different about me in the mirror. Nothing gigantic or outrageously different, but rather subtle so that only I could actually pick them out with certainty. The green around my eyes had become a shade brighter and even more seperated from my light brown centers than before. It gave the slightly unnerving effect of my pupils being larger than they actually were. I also seemed to be a bit more muscled than before, which I suppose would be helpful if I ever had to battle another one of those creature things. And although I couldn't be completely sure, my hair seemed to have decided to turn black. Great. I hoped nothing else would surprise me with changes.

Getting myself away from the mirror, I walked out of the bathroom and laid down on the bed I had slept on, my wet hair splayed out behind me. I had given up trying to manually dry it, it wasn't really worth the trouble, anyway. I let my thoughts wander to innocent stuff like bunnies in order to pass the time without stressing myself out. Still, it felt like half an hour had passed before Daniel walked back in through the door. (I wonder why I added that door part. How else was he going to get back into the room?)

I greeted him like the small puppy I had been acting like for the past few hours, and Daniel held me back at arm's length with a slightly annoyed, but amused, look on his face. Even when he told me to sit my "stupid butt in the goddamn chair", I could tell that it made him feel a bit better about himself that somebody actually cared that he had come back.

Not wanting to disobey him, I sat down in the indicated chair and he tossed me a warm breakfast burrito. Unable to help myself, I cradled it next to my face, both to get a whiff of its delicious contents and to feel the waves of warmth coming off of it. Things that give off heat are awesome.

As Daniel sat down on the bed across from me, I noticed he was missing something. "Hey, where's yours?" I asked, indicating his lack of burrito warmth.

"I ate mine on the way over here." He held up a hand to stop me from asking the obvious 'why'. "This way I can explain to you all of the things that you don't know and that burrito can prevent you from asking me any annoying questions."

I gave a fake huff of indignation, but decided to hurry up and eat my burrito rather than fake being annoyed at his remark. After all, he was probably right about that. As I munched on, Daniel carefully explained the workings of his world.

**...**

**A/N:: Obviously I'm not going to tell you stuff you already know, so I'm just going to stop this chapter there and continue when Daniel has finished explaining. And just curious, but what do you think the animal should be for the witch that these two should face? **


	4. Journey to Death City

**A/N:: I don't own Soul Eater. I hope you all have been enjoying this holiday! Yay, no school :) And in reply to my reviews...**

**Anon- Thank you :) A bird is actually what I've been aiming at... And I don't really have an update schedule, because I don't think I could handle that kind of pressure, hehe.**

**Draco Oblivion- Oooh, that's an interesting idea. Maybe I shall try an integrate a scorpion somewhere?**

Chapter Four

_Journey to Death City_

_..._

"Sooo," I began after Daniel gave me the okay to start asking questions. "You're a weapon." He nods in confirmation. "And since you need a meister, you're going to this place called Death City, why?"

Daniel rolled his eyes at me, which he'd been doing a lot, "They have this annual convention for weapons and meisters who don't have a partner. This will be my first time attending."

"Why? Did you just recently discover your… weapon-ness?" I asked, making up a word because I had no idea how else to describe it.

He gave a small cough and stood up, making his way to the door. "Not really," he muttered.

Since his back was turned to me, I gave a small, "Uuuh-huh." But let it go, because he obviously didn't want to talk about it.

Turning back towards me, Daniel motioned for me to get up. "Come on, it's best that we leave as soon as possible," he began, switching topics. "Although we can take a cab to a certain point, there really isn't a road to Death City. So we'll have to walk quite a ways."

At first, I didn't really think much of this, but as I stood up, I remembered where we were. "Wait, does that mean-"

"We'll be walking through a desert?" Daniel finished for me. "Yep, that's why we should leave as soon as possible so that this isn't nearly as horrible as it could be."

I sighed and picked up the foil that had previously held my delicious burrito. Feeling the cold, thin metal now, it was hard to believe that it had been wondrously warm. Tossing it into the trash, I followed Daniel out the door.

He closed it shut behind us and I pretty much followed him downstairs to the lobby, which still managed to look impossibly dreary despite the morning light coming in through the windows. After checking us out, Daniel walked out to the street and caught a cab with relative ease.

Following him into the taxi, I scrunched up my nose at the stench of the cab. There were too many different smells in the stupid cab and it gave me a slight headache. Perhaps at one point each individual smell had been quite pleasant, but right now, they were simply nauseating. In order to ease my nose's suffering, I tucked my face into my jacket.

Of course, while I had been busy being distracted by the smell, Daniel had already told the cab driver where we wanted to go and was now looking at me like I was an idiot. Can't say that I'm not at times, but he doesn't have to go and remind me. Geez. I wanted to explain myself to him too, but was worried that the driver might hear me. So I settled with just having Daniel expect me to be an idiot.

Turning my back towards Daniel, I peered out my window and noticed the sun. It had a face and looked like it was blinking itself awake. How the heck did it emit light? Or heat, for that matter? I wonder if it could laugh like the moon. Probably. I was beginning to figure out that this place seemed to be a bit darker and stranger than my own.

Soon enough we were at a dead end, the road simply melting into the desert. Oh great, I was so looking forward to this walk. Grimacing, I got out of the cab while Daniel paid the fare. Stretching myself out, I took in my surroundings. Of course, there wasn't much to take in, just desert and the road leading back the way we came. The wind picked up and dust swept through, causing me to have to close my eyes. My hair tossed up and I knew I was definitely going to have to take another shower when this walk was over.

Not a fan of my wavy hair blowing everywhere, I tied it back into a bun. However, my bangs still managed to flop around in my face. Annoying.

As the cab drove away, Daniel walked up next to me. "C'mon then, we can't waste the day away." I nodded in agreement.

"How do we know which way Death City is, anyway?" I asked as we started forward.

He gestured towards one of those cow skulls they always make a point to show in those western movies. "The skulls all face towards the city."

"Of course they do," I muttered.

After that, things got kind of awkward. Before, I at least had something to talk about or ask questions, but now we were simply walking. I wasn't really a talkative person to begin with and Daniel sure wasn't making this any easier.

Speaking of the guy, I raised my eyes from the sandy ground and looked at his back. His light brown hair seemed almost highlighted with blonde streaks in the sunlight, and his hair lightly touched the back of his neck. In all, I guess he wasn't that bad looking…

Suddenly, he turned to look at me. I freaked and hurriedly looked towards the sky. I could see him out of the corner of my eye giving me a quizzical look. Deciding that he didn't know that I had been staring at him previously, I returned his look.

"Do you…" he began. "Are you missing your… old life?"

Aaah, this question. "Nope!" I replied, tossing in some extra light-heartedness to make him believe me, because it was true.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I wasn't really close with anyone," I gave him a wry smile. "Hard to believe because of my wonderful personality, right?"

He gave a laugh, then turned away like I knew he would. I didn't want anymore questions about it, but I felt kind of bad that I had slightly killed his attempt at conversation. So I gulped and forced myself to ask, "How 'bout you?"

I saw his shoulders give a small twitch. "Not really," he replied. "Just one person."

"Mmhmm?" I prodded, but he remained silent. "Ran away from home, did'ya?"

This time he stiffened and turned to look at me. "Basically, yeah."

I gave a grin and decided to try and defuse the tension a bit. "C'mon, let's run!"

Daniel gave a surprised look and opened his mouth to protest or maybe ask why, but I had already turned and begun to race away. I heard him swear behind me and take off after me. A grin crossed my face, but I forced myself to concentrate. Didn't want to trip and fall flat on my face now, did I?

Despite usually being a couch potato, I really loved to run. It was always really fun to me, but I hated to run competitively, so I usually kept my love for running a secret and would only run at night. Running now felt especially freeing, I felt like being in this world made running so much easier. Maybe it had something to do with going through that portal? Oh well, running was fun. There wasn't much else to delve into.

Daniel was keeping pace behind me, which was fine. Sprinting across the desert wasn't a good idea, after all, we were each just taking a simple pace, a little bit faster than a jog.

Anyway, I was enjoying myself so much that I didn't really notice the big dust blowing up until it was almost upon us. Daniel seemed to notice it at the same time that I did and so we both slowed down to a stop, breathing a bit heavily.

"What the…"

I'm not exactly sure which one of us uttered those words, but I'm sure we were both thinking them. At first I was worried that it was some sort of Dust Devil, but I saw something at the front of the tossed up sand.

"Is that," Daniel said, leaning towards me. "A bus?"

I nodded slowly, a little bit too focused on the black vehicle that was headed toward us. As it came closer, I saw that it had a skull print on it. Despite the skull print, it didn't really look scary. In fact, I kind of hoped it would pick us up.

Luckily, it seemed to have sighted us as its path began to curve toward us. "Do you think they'll give us a ride?" I asked, looking up at Daniel, but he only shrugged in response.

The bus soon reached us and slowed to a stop, its brakes giving that low hissing sound that large vehicles always seemed to have. I squinted my eyes a little bit as some dirt flew past us and read the lettering on the bus' side. _Death Charters_. I couldn't help but give a small grin at that.

Another hiss from the bus announced the bus was opening the doors to let us in. "Come on in, kids," the driver said happily.

I gave a slight twitch at the word 'kids', not because I was offended, I know I'm a kid, but because it made the bus driver sound like a pedophile. From the look on Daniel's face I could see that he was thinking the same thing. Seeing me looking at me, he gave me a look that said "are you sure we should get on?"

Like hell I was sure! I'm not the one who had grown up in this world! Oh well, I didn't want to spend another moment in that goddamn desert, anyway. I could feel myself beginning to sweat and the air coming out of the bus' door was plenty cool for me. So before Daniel could hesitate any longer, I hopped up the bus steps and asked the driver if he was taking us to Death City.

"Of course!" Was his still overly happy reply. "In fact, if you had stayed at Dead End for a while longer, I would've picked you up!"

At this, I turned to glare at Daniel, but he simply held up his hands apologetically. "Hey, I didn't say I knew everything."

"Well you sure act like it, dumbass!"

"That's because compared to you I'm a genius," he quipped with a smirk.

If I didn't need him to show me around Death City, I would've shoved him off the bus and had the driver run over him. Unfortunately, I needed a familiar (well, relatively familiar, I guess) face to get me through this, so I just grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him down the aisle to two seats somewhere in the back.

Knowing that Daniel was still grinning at me, I turned my back to him and stared out the window, the dust quickly attaching itself to the windows. Great, it was either watch dirt or look at Daniel's turd face. Wonderful options. But because I'm such a stubborn brat, I determinedly stared at the accumulating dirt.

Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones on the bus and social Daniel, over there, was beginning to chat it up with someone. Of course, that meant I didn't have to be involved, but I could hear him making fun of me.

"Yeah, I wanted to stay there at Dead End, but Kayla wanted to attempt running all the way! Can you believe it?"

Wow. Now that was plain old NOT true and I was not about to let him spout lies about me, even if I never did see these people again. "Cut the crap, Daniel!" I yelled, shoving his face aside so that I could see the girl he was talking to. "This idiot had no idea that there was a charter bus!"

I glared at him, but he merely gave me that annoying smirk. How could I go from slightly respecting him to thinking he was the most annoying guy on earth? Of course, I shouldn't be surprised, guys were usually like that, weren't they? Not that I particularly minded, because in a way, it was kind of fun. Even now, underneath this annoyance, I was slightly cheered at the interaction.

Meanwhile, the girl was laughing pretty hard and I wasn't sure whether to be offended or laugh with her. So I just tilted my head a bit and ended my glare with Daniel. Instead, I replaced it with a slightly worried look, whether for the girl's questionable sanity or perhaps a social blunder by myself, I wasn't sure.

Daniel merely pushed my hand away and gave me a more reassuring type of grin. "Now that you're done pouting," this earned a slight glare from me. "Kayla, meet Erin, she's a weapon too."

I gave the girl a small smile and quickly gave her a once over. Kind of short, but looked to be 16, straight black hair that reached her shoulders, and green eyes. Okey doke, all done. In any case, she seemed to be done with laughing, but her eyes were still gleaming with laughter. Once again, offensive or simply happy?

She held her hand out and I promptly shook it. "So you looking for a meister, too?" I asked.

As she shook her head, Daniel gave me a smirk, "If you hadn't been so sullen earlier, maybe you would have heard that she had been visiting family and was returning to her meister."

I ignored the teasing tone in his voice and focused on the information. "So what's it like in Death City?" I asked.

Erin mulled over her answer before saying, "It's nice being around people who are like you."

Obviously I didn't quite get it, but Daniel nodded his head like he did and I got the feeling that he was looking back on something.

We switched the topic to what type of weapon she was and how Death City's academy worked and some normal topics, like movies and whatnot. Before long, I felt the bus shudder to a stop and let out its hissing sound. I immediately perked up and attempted to look out the windows to see our destination, but apparently dirt doesn't dislodge dirt.

After talking with Erin about Death City, I was a bit over eager to see the infamous place myself. While I tried to be patient and wait for everyone to exit the bus, my excitement did not go unnoticed. "If I didn't know better," Erin joked. "I'd think you're more excited about this than Daniel is!"

I merely gave an innocent smile in response and quickly jumped down the steps out of the bus, ignoring the driver's creepy, "Have a nice time, now!"

Back in the sunlight, I did a stretch towards the sky and allowed myself a glimpse of the sun, which appeared to be laughing it up. Daniel and Erin exited the bus soon after me and Daniel and I gave our good-byes to Erin who had to make her way back to her meister.

After wishing each other luck in our pursuits and watching Erin's retreating back. I looked towards Daniel, who simply shrugged and gave a sweeping gesture. "Death City awaits!"

**...**

**A/N:: Hopefully that was good. Basically worked on Daniel and Kayla's personality a bit more and I'm not sure whether Erin will ever appear again, she's just kind of there for interaction. The bus was because I was lazy and didn't want to have to write more about them crossing a desert, because... well, it's a desert. Anyway, I'll be gone for awhile, but I should have time to write. In the next chapter, you'll find out what type of weapon Daniel is, yay!  
**


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